It did not get totally dark, like 2:00am dark, but was rather like sunset when the sun is below the horizon, but you still see a little glow in the sky. Also, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. All in all it was a somewhat eerie (and awesome) experience seeing it get dark in the afternoon!
Reginald P. Michell (April 9, 1873 – May 19, 1938, 65 years old) was born in Cornwall in SW England. His wife Edith Mary Ann Michell was a three-time British Women's champion.
Michell was British Amateur Champion in 1902 and between 1901 and 1911 he played in eight Anglo-American Cable Matches. He was on the English Olympiad team at Folkestone in1933. In 1914 he received a brilliancy prize for his game in the match against Holland in 1914 which is today’s featured game.
I was unable to locate any information on the match other than Britain was represented on the top 5 boards by H.E. Atkins, F.D. Yates, T.F. Lawrence, G.A. Thomas and J.H. Blackburne.
In the Hastings Congresses Michell scored wins over Sultan Khan and Vera Menchik and in British Championships he defeated Henry Atkins on several occasions. In Margate 1923, he tied for second place with Alekhine, Bogolyubov and Muffang where he scored 2.5-1.5 against Alekhine, Bogolyubow, Reti and Gruenfeld.
Chess metrics estimates his highest ever rating to gave been 2565 in 1904 which ranked him number 22 in the world.
Michell was a civil servant by profession and strictly an amateur player who was very modest about his chess accomplishments. Consequently, he rarely ever played outside of England and played in the British Championships on his vacations. His play was sound with few mistakes and with no fireworks.
His opponent in the following game was Klaas Geus (1878-1959, dates uncertain) who is virtually unknown today. He finished eighth in the 1929 Dutch championship. He also is supposed to have composed some chess problems under the name “J. de Jutter”
Klaas Geus (Holland)–Reginald Michell (England)0–1C77Anglo-Dutch Match, The HagueThe Hague NED1914Stockfish 16
C86: Ruy Lopez: Worrall Attack 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.a4 f6 5.e2 This is the Worrall Attack. White replaces 6.Re1 with 6.Qe2.
The idea is that the Q will support the e-Pawn, leaving the R free to support
the advance of the d-Pawn although there is not always time to do so. In my
database statistically it performs considerably worse than the standard 5.O-O
followed by Re1. d6 6.c3 e7 7.d4 d7 8.0-0 0-0 9.b3 g4 10.d3
It's probably best to play 10.d5 here. 10.d1 d7 11.h3 h5 12.g4 g6 13.bd2 exd4 14.xd4 equals as in Yates,F-Bogoljubow,E Bad Kissingen 1928 10...xf3 11.gxf3 11.xf3 exd4 wins a P/ 12.d3 dxc3 13.xc3
and black is slightly better. 11...h5 12.h1 White obviously hopes to
use the g-file, but his best move was 12.f4 12.f4 xf4 13.xf4 exf4 14.c2 g6 15.f3 g5 16.d2 d7 17.h4 xh4 18.xf4 with equal chances. 12...g5 13.e3 13.xg5 is a serious mistake because after xg5 14.g1 f6
black will occupy f4 with his N leaving him with a significant positional
advantage. 13...f4 14.d2 f6 15.g1 White's occupation of the g-file
doesn't amount to anything because it's black's pieces that control the K-side.
s e7 This N begins its journey to the K-side. 16.dxe5 Opening
up the d-file only serves to give black more open lines. Something like Na3-c4
was worth considering. dxe5 17.d7 e6 18.d1 ad8 Little by little
black's positional advantahge begins to grow. 19.d2 f4 20.e2 g6 21.f1 g5 22.c5 fe8 23.d1 h4 In the last 5 moves black's advantage has grown
to be decisive. 24.g4 hxf3 25.h4 h6 26.xd8 xd8 27.e7 h5
The fatal blow. 28.xf4 28.g2 d2 29.xd2 xh4+ 30.h2 xh2# 28.h2
is met by xh2 29.xg5 d2 and wins 28...exf4 29.xg5 At this point
black has only one move that secures the win,. g4 Threatening
mate on g1 and also ...Qh3+ with mate next move. 30.xf7+ xf7 He
could also decline the sacrifice and mate two moves sooner. 30...h8 31.xf3 xf3+ 32.g1 g4+ 33.g3 d1+ 34.h2 d2 35.h1 f3 36.g3 xf2+ 37.g1 xg3+ 31.c4+ g6 32.h5+ xg5 33.c5+ h6 White resigned. A solid
performance by Muchell. 0–1
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